Archive for the Features Category

The whole Black Friday and Cyber Monday concept is a bit foreign to many of us Canadians, but we know good deals when we see them whatever the day. When these two sales popped up in my e-mail box, how could I not share?

– includes the complete Bakuman series (volumes 1-20), artwork-decorated carrying box with handle, double-sided colour poster and special one-shot edition of Otterman (a series that exists within Bakuman)

These are great deals for that many books, not to mention the snazzy boxes and extra goodies. I still look at my Fullmetal Alchemist box set with a happy grin.

The Bakuman set is an especially good deal for being the entire series, making it an extra satisfying buy. I already own all the books but I almost regret it for loss of that box and chance at the Otterman one-shot. I hope many others enjoy them in my stead! It’s a series I would highly recommend to manga fans, regardless of some of its’ issues.

This sale won’t last long, so nab ’em while you can. They’ll make a great holiday gift for a friend, family member or yourself!

The student-pocalypse is upon us! It’s the last week of August and students around the world are back to the books after this coming weekend. Enjoy your freedom while you can! Which means read, read, read! … and then continue to do so.

My must-have book for this week is Vertical Inc‘s Helter Skelter. I have a lot of faith in the company’s selection for titles as it is, and this josei story – a title aimed at older woman – about a model’s use of plastic surgery to try and keep up her career, and her spiraling madness because of it, sounds like a worthwhile drama to seek out. Plus as much as I love good on-going series, a solid one shot can often be even more satisfying.

It looks like Otakuthon was a lot of fun this year. I’ve always wanted to try going, but just haven’t planned it yet. Maybe 2014? Good excuse to take the train! I love our sad, barely running little train system.

As for manga, this week I’m most looking forward to Bunny Drop (Vol. 09) from Yen Press. This volume wraps up the main story and is the book long criticized for its ending. I’m so conflicted by the idea alone. On one hand (no spoilers!), yuck. On the other? Maybe Yumi Unita can make it less yuck? We’ll soon see.

No. 6 (Vol. 02) from Kodansha Comics is also a must-buy after enjoying the first so much, plus the anime adaptation. Yen Press is starting a new series with Judge (Vol. 01), the sequel to Doubt, and Viz Media is releasing the long-awaited Ikigami: Ultimate Limit (Vol. 09). At last!

Also work a note is this week’s Shonen Jump. Because the magazine is on holiday in Japan, there are no new chapters but Viz Media also released a special Naruto art book in its place. I’m not a Naruto reader myself, but it’s great they still put together something. My fingers are crossed they do the same for future holidays – I’d love a cover art collection of other series, such as Toriko, Bleach or Dragonball.

Viz Media is offering a silver lining to the dwindling days of summer with a sale on their digital manga. Until September 5, 2013, all their titles available on VizManga.com and its apps, plus the NOOK tablets, are 20% off. This means that their standard pricing of $4.99/US per book drops to $3.99/US. For an entire volume of manga? That’s pretty darn good!

While I’m always an advocate for buying the hardcopy books, the sad part of print reality is that some are just not possible to find anymore. However, Viz Media has been pushing out digital editions of a lot of older series, alongside simultaneous releases of their new ones. This is great for finally being able to read a lot of out of print titles.

Some of my recommendations from the out-of-print category include Red River, Please Save My Earth, The Cain Saga, and – one of my absolute favourites – Kaze Hikaru. Viz Media currently boasts a “library of over 1,500 volumes across 130+ series”. Get ’em while they’re cheap(er)!

MAGI is here! I’ve been eager to read this manga ever since I started watching the anime adaptation on Crunchyroll. I really love the characters, and hope the manga is as much fun. I’m still in shock it’s by the creator of Sumomomo, Momomo though. If curious, you can read Andre’s review of Sumomomo (Vol. 02).

Other exciting titles for me this week include the new editions of Embracing Love, courtesy of SuBLime, and volume one of the Tiger & Bunny Comic Anthology from Viz Media.

Happy Birthday to me! Well, belated. Sort of. This week’s shipping day, August 7th, just so happened to be my birthday, and what a birthday it was! This week was a huge one for new manga – thanks predominantly to Viz Media – and among the spoils were some of my favourite series still running.

Notables for me included Toriko (Vol. 17), the final volume of Bakuman, A Devil and Her Love Song (Vol. 10), Kamisama Kiss (Vol. 13) and the very long awaited Kaze Hikaru (Vol. 21), a title that only comes out once a year! Plenty to choose from. Seek, read and enjoy~

July is one of those special months that ends up having five Wednesdays, so that means five days for new manga to come out. And despite this being the last day of July, it still has a good amount of books coming out too.

My top pick today easily goes to Vertical Inc‘s release of Twin Knight. This one shot book is Osamu Tezuka’s sequel to his popular Princess Knight. Before Vertical announced this title, I didn’t even know there was a sequel. This makes me even more excited to buy it as I’ve intentionally avoided reading anything about Twin Knight so as much is a surprise as possible.

Yen Press also has some gems with a stack of new Kingdom Hearts books. These are all re-translated and repackaged series originally published by Tokyopop. This weeks’ include the second, and final, volume of the first story, Kingdom Hearts Final Mix, a complete one shot release of the second story, Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories, and the first of two volumes for the follow-up story, Kingdom Hearts II.

I’ll also be revisiting an old favourite with Viz Media‘s newest omnibus volume of Hana Kimi. Romantic drama and cross-dressing fun~

It often happens that I don’t realize how many books I’ve bought recently until I write one of these Swag Bag posts. While my buying habits of today can be a pretty far cry from the look-at-all-my-disposable-income days of yester-year, I’m still ever grateful I can afford to fill one of these columns in a month. And this past month had some real gems that I hope many readers are able to fit into the budget as well.

Vertical Inc.’s books were the cream of the crop this past July. After spending Animaritime drooling over every copy I saw lucky buyers walking around with, I was quick to come home and buy my own copy of Gundam the Origin (Vol. 02). I never thought I’d be so invested in one of the classic Gundam stories, but I fell in love with this one right away. Vertical’s hardcover, colour-page insert editions definitely help too. This volume even came with a bonus illustration by CLAMP.

Next I went for something new and bought a copy of Vertical’s one-shot, Utsubora: The Story of a Novelist. There was something very reminiscent of Tezuka’s darker works reading Utsubora. This twisted tale of plagiarism, lust and suicide-mystery nestles well into Vertical’s library and I quite enjoyed it. Then I had to try Wolfsmund (Vol. 01), which really surprised me. Both of these series are for adults only, and Wolfsmund greatly so for the violent content. But that didn’t surprise me as much as how the book took a story-convention I’m really used to (and enjoy) and turned it on its head. Episodic stories with one reoccurring common character but instead of running a magical shop or granting wishes, in Wolfsmund it’s a gatekeeper who won’t let anyone pass. I rounded out my mini Vertical binge with a copy of Limit (Vol. 01) as well.

I took a trip to my Yen Press list next to visit some continuing series. First was Blood Lad (Vol. 02) and then Drrrr!’s sequel series, Drrrr! Saika Arc (Vol. 01). My favourite new book out from Yen though was easily Black Butler (Vol. 14). Every volume since the book hit double-digits has been a real step up in the story and art; enough so to take it from a series I considered dropping, to one of my most anticipated. Warning, very mild spoiler ahead – Sebastian getting his butt handed to him? Much more interesting than Mr. Perfect-Butler.

Next up were some sad farewells to two series. The first, from Viz Media, was Children of the Sea (Vol. 05). I still don’t fully understand what happened in this series, but I think that’s the point. The slightly confused yet tranquil feeling I had finishing it just made me miss it more. That melancholy couldn’t hold a candle to my sadness at completing Sailor Moon (Vol. 12), however. Wow, what a series. It’s dramatic, beautiful, detailed, universe-encompassing in its scope, and totally inspiring to read as a woman. I’m really looking forward to the two collections of Sailor Moon short stories due out from Kodansha Comics in the Fall.

Gate 7 (Vol. 04) is another book I bought recently that desperately wants to be as pretty and epic, but unfortunately only succeeds at the first. This is one of CLAMP’s most recent works, and while the artwork is absolutely gorgeous, and the characters are kinda fun, the story itself is completely underwhelming. I really hope something big and interesting happens soon or else it could be the first CLAMP series I’m tempted to drop.

That does it for this week’s Swag Bag. As always, feel more than free to share what purchases you’ve made recently and if you’d recommend them!

It’s a big week for Yen Press with a stack of fresh manga volumes to help us get through these rainy days. …Or boiling hot days, depending on where you are.

Though I’m still in the fading stages of my Sailor Moon overload from last week‘s final volume, my enthusiasm will soon to be shifting to what lands in my shopping bag today, notably Black Butler (Vol. 14) and Doubt (Vol. 02).

And don’t forget about Shonen Jump, which comes out every week! This week’s issue includes, among many other things, the final chapter of Cross Manage and the second installment of Akira Toriyama’s new series, Jaco the Galatic Patrolman.

The last volume of Sailor Moon is out this week! Noooooo… … Well, at least until the twovolumes of short story extras come out. But still, very sad.

Another classic is getting a new go, fresh from the start – Lone Wolf and Cub. The length and odd format of this series has always been a deterrent to me, but now at a larger trim size and in omnibus format, I may finally read one of the longest running manga series in North America.